Expectations and the i.MX53 QSB "Lab" Session

My expectations were high for the Freescale i.MX53 lab session that was held this morning. I was excited! The agenda had items like Linux on the i.MX53! LTIB! Android development on the i.MX53! and free lunch!

My expectations were not realized.
There was free lunch but I left.

The morning consisted of a lecture by a very nice and smart guy about general embedded Linux things and the i.MX53 QSB hardware. No fault on him but the material was way too basic. I was expecting to get right into using LTIB and learning about the LTIB configuration and build system and how it applies to the i.MX53. I don't have much experience with LTIB but we didn't really do much with it other than run a script and look at some options in the menuconfig interface.

Those who felt comfortable with embedded Linux were given the serial cables and SDcards so they could play during the lecture. I tried to do the Ubuntu demo but just loading it onto the SDcard must have taken a good hour. Then the USB to serial converter decided to not play nice with VMware Workstation (host machines were Ubuntu 10.10 in a VM on top of Windows). And then once the demo finished loading and I booted it... It's Ubuntu! What's the fun of that? What did I learn? Nothing.

SDcards are slow. But that's another topic all together.

I then played a little with LTIB but I didn't like it. I felt like I had no control over the choices. I'm not sure if that is LTIB's fault or Freescale's fault. We didn't have a connection to the Internet so there was no way for me to use any sources other than what was provided. Regardless, it was a type the following few lines, look at some options that have already been selected, push go. One thing I really disliked was that the LTIB menuconfig had almost no help for options that were vague. That's not cool.

I did meet a nice guy name Jon who works for a local company doing board support packages for custom embedded boards, that was cool. But overall, I wish I hadn't gone. It was nice out today so I did the next best thing and left at lunch to mow the lawn. Way better use of my vacation day.